Our reader Suzette had pity on our fur-saturated household and wrote in with a suggestion - the FURminator! She reported on her experience using one on her dog, Bella. Now Bella is short-haired in the extreme, but Suzette thinks Daisy could benefit, too. She told us:
You would be shocked at the hair from the second coat below that comes up. It reduces shedding by 90%. It is pricey and can be found atThe description on the FURminator web site says it grabs undercoat hair and leaves the lovely top coat pristine. At first read it sounds dangerous -- be gentle, it warns, and watch for the redness and irritation that deep brushing can cause. But the lady in the demo video isn't holding back. You can see why they suggest that it's best to brush in a place you can sweep -- or better yet, have a vacuum with a fresh bag handy. Best of all, though, this product promises to get rid of our household's "cleanliness problems." Wow!Pet Smart, Pet Express, online, etc. I got the medium size and it was $49 but well worth it. I brushed her with the normal brush I bought for her that had bristles on one side and wire on the other. Not much came out.
Then I used the Furminator and I got half a bag full of fur!
5 comments:
Bella loves being brushed and I don't brush her as deep and fast as the demo shows - and I still get a lot of short hair! It is a pretty good product.
Hi Sally, I conducted a pilot study on this for the AKC Gazette. Here are my comments:
Putting the “FURminator” treatment to the test
GREAT BALLS OF FUR
Promotional materials for the FURminator say that the full regime can reduce shedding by 90 percent. The treatment includes a shampoo, conditioning solution, and brushing with the FURminator de-Shedding tool. To test this claim, gazette Features Editor Mara Bovsun conducted an experiment on Lisa, the Leonberger, a bona fide “shedding machine.”
Methods: On day one, we brushed the subject for 15 minutes with the de-shedding tool, collected the hair, and saved it in a plastic bag. On the same day, we bathed Lisa with the FURminator shampoo and solution, following the instructions to “massage it into her coat for five minutes,” which she appeared to enjoy. Then we dried her and
maintained her normal grooming schedule of quick brushing three times in the following week.
One Week Later: We gave Lisa another thorough 15-minute brushing, and collected and saved the hair in a second plastic bag. We weighed the two bags on a standard kitchen scale.
Results: Week One weighed approximately one ounce. Week
Two weighed approximately half an ounce. Although not the 90 percent the company claims, the treatment appears to have produced a substantial reduction in shedding. Lisa’s coat was extremely soft, and the colors seemed brighter.
Additional testing: A quick once-over of Labrador Retriever Maggie produced less volume, but still a respectable amount of yellow fluff.
Gazette Breed Columns Editor Sheila Goffe used the FURminator products on her Siberian Huskies Wolfie and Amber: “The shampoo did a good job cleaning them, however it seemed like it left their outer coats rather limp. The de-shedding tool reminded me a lot of a stripping tool.
I used it on Wolfie, who was losing a lot of undercoat in one of his semi-annual coat ‘blows.’ I was impressed by the amount of fur it removed. It was particularly useful for that dead kind of fur that just keeps hanging on. One note of caution—this works just like a stripper, so I definitely wouldn’t use it on a coat that’s not meant to be stripped.”
We also tried the FURminator tool, which comes in three sizes, on double- and long-coated breeds, as well as shorthaired dogs. “The amount of hair the FURminator removed amazed me,” noted gazette Publications Coordinator and Bullmastiff fancier Kimberly Silva.
“I didn’t think a Bullmastiff had that much coat.”
“And,” adds AKC Photo Editor Meghan Lyons, “it works on cats, too.”
For more stripping and grooming tools, visit the AKC Online Store at www.akcstore.org.
Oh, one thing we didn't have in there...When I first brushed Lisa with the Furminator, I put all of the hair in a pile on the lawn. When Michael came out he thought the pile of Lisa hair was a dead raccoon, there was so much hair.
Oh, one thing we didn't have in there...When I first brushed Lisa with the Furminator, I put all of the hair in a pile on the lawn. When Michael came out he thought the pile of Lisa hair was a dead raccoon, there was so much hair.
Wow - very impressive endorsements! Guess we'll have to drop $50 and do a FURminator test of our own.
Post a Comment